#BIGEASTvb Weekend Roundup – 9.18.17
NEW YORK – The final non-conference weekend is in the books and on top of the league standings are Butler with a 10-2 record and Providence with an 11-3 record. Creighton and Villanova are tied at 7-4. Butler, DePaul and Villanova had winning records over the weekend.
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Butler (3-0)
Friday, Sept. 15: W, 3-0 Evansville (Recap)
Saturday, Sept. 16: W, 3-0 Duquesne (Recap) | W, 3-2 Ball State (Recap)
Butler extended its current win streak to seven games with wins this weekend over Evansville (30-28, 25-13, 25-22), Duquesne (25-16, 25-18, 25-18) and Ball State (25-15, 25-12, 22-25, 19-25, 15-6). The Bulldogs won the Butler-Ball State Tournament and Natalie Ravenell, Whitney Beck and Anna Logan were named to the all-tournament team with Logan earning MVP honors. Butler won the eight sets in the tournament until co-host Ball State gave them a run in the third set of their match. The Cardinals won set No. 3 and No. 4, but Butler rallied back and commanded the fifth and final set. Butler led start to finish as Logan posted four kills and four digs in crunch time.
No. 8 Creighton (0-2)
Friday, Sept. 15: L, 3-1 at Wichita State (Recap)
Saturday, Sept. 16: L, 3-2 vs. No. 19 Iowa State (Recap)
Then-No. 8 Creighton had to play without the services 2016 BIG EAST Player of the Year Lydia Dimke in Saturday’s five-set loss against No. 19 Iowa State. The contest between the two ranked teams featured 24 ties and 14 lead changes. Creighton took the second set 25-22, and the fourth set (25-19), taking it to five sets. Megan Ballenger was named to the Shocker Classic All-Tournament Team. Ballenger led CU with 28 kills while hitting .357. She also added five blocks, four digs and four assists. In the opener against host Wichita State, Ballenger had a career high 16 kills, hitting .500 in 26 swings. Creighton lost to the Shockers on Friday 25-20, 16-25, 25-19, 25-22. Iowa State won the tournament.
DePaul (3-0)
Friday, Sept. 15: W, 3-1 at Saint Louis (Recap)
Saturday, Sept. 16: W, 3-2 vs. Little Rock (Recap) | W, 3-2 vs. Louisiana Tech (Recap)
DePaul comes out of last week on a four-game winning streak winning three straight and winning the Saint Louis Billiken Invitational Tile. Claire Anderson earned MVP honors and had career highs in the five-set match against Little Rock with 24 kills, 19 digs – scoring 25.0 points and earning her sixth double-double of the season. Kelsey Horvath and Kaley Bueser also added all-tournament honors to their resumes. Scores of the matches were 19-25,25-13,25-19,29-27 against Saint Louis, 21-25,25-19,23-25,25-21,17-15 against Louisiana Tech and 25-22,21-25,25-14,23-25,15-12 against Little Rock.
Georgetown (0-3)
Friday, Sept. 15: L, 3-1 vs. Arkansas State (Recap) | L, 3-1 vs. Stephen F. Austin (Recap)
Saturday, Sept. 16: L, 3-1 at Rice (Recap)
Georgetown opened the Rice adidas Invitation II tournament with a tough 3-1 (24-26, 25-23, 25-19, 25-10) loss to Arkansas State. Symone Speech led the Hoyas with 15 kills at an impressive .438 hitting percentage Paige McKnight paced the offense with a match-high 40 assists and a team-best 12 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. Against Stephen F. Austin ((25-21, 25-15, 13-25, 25-16), Aima Eichie led the Hoyas with 12 kills while hitting at a solid .478 clip. Against Rice (14-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-19), Speech led the Hoyas with 14 kills. Speech was named to the all-tournament team after averaging 3.17 kills per set, while hitting at a .337 clip on the road last weekend.
Marquette (1-1)
Thursday, Sept. 14: L, 3-1 at No. 5 Wisconsin (Recap)
Friday, Sept. 15: W, 3-0 vs. Southern Mississippi (Recap)
Marquette split their games at the Badger Classic in Wisconsin, 1-1, losing to host No. 5 Wisconsin, 25-19,13-25,21-25,24-26, then sweeping Southern Mississippi, 25-23,25-21,25-22. Against Southern Mississippi, sophomore Allie Barber led the Golden Eagles with 14 kills, while junior Anna Haak matched a career-high 11 kills and had her first double-double in a Marquette uniform with 10 digs. Martha Konovodoff collected 17 digs, while Manon Geoffroy recorded 11. Setter Lauren Speckman dished out 41 assists. The Golden Eagles hit a combined .274 clip as a team, holding Southern Miss (9-4) to .164. Against the host Wisconsin, Marquette became the first team to win a set from the Badgers, winning the first set before losing in four. Barber had 21 kills.
Providence (0-3)
Friday, Sept. 15: L, 3-1 vs. Akron (Recap)
Saturday, Sept. 16: L, 3-1 vs. West Virginia (Recap) | L, 3-0 at Army (Recap)
The Friars streak came to an end in West Point, N.Y. as Providence lost three matches to Akron (23-25,25-22,23-25,22-25), West Virginia (11-25,25-23,18-25,12-25), and Army (19-25,17-25,18-25). Sophomore Lindsey Schaible was named to the Black Knights Invitational All-Tournament team. Over the course of the three-match tournament, Schaible recorded 22 kills and three blocks.
St. John’s (1-2)
Friday, Sept. 15: L, 3-2 vs. UTSA (Recap)
Saturday, Sept. 16: L, 3-0 at Baylor (Recap) | W, 3-1 vs. Texas State (Recap)
St. John’s out-blocked host-school Baylor, who was ranked 12th in the NCAA in blocks per set, 6-4. The Bears had six aces with 46 digs to knock off the Red Storm in three sets. After dropping the opening set of the match, the Red Storm rallied to pick up the next three frames of the match for a 3-1 (17-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-15) victory over Texas State, who won 20 matches in 2016. St. John’s used its offense to the tune of a .239 clip and played stellar on the defensive end with 12 blocks and held the Bobcats to a .194 hitting percentage. The Johnnies also tallied 67 digs compared to Texas State’s 55. Erica Di Maulo, a 6-foot setter, conducted a well-balanced offense on Saturday night with 48 assists. St. John’s fell in five sets to UTSA in the opening match of the tournament. It was SJU’s first five set match of 2017. Julia Cast had a career best 26 kills. Danisha Moss notched nine blocks.
Seton Hall (0-3)
Friday, Sept. 15: L, 3-0 vs. Northwestern (Recap)
Saturday, Sept. 16: L, 3-2 at VCU (Recap) | L, 3-2 vs. Bowling Green (Recap)
Abby Thelen continued to lead the Pirates, as she has through 13 games this season, at the VCU Invitational. Thelen had 21 kills along with 17 digs against Bowling Green, 17 kills with five digs against VCU and 11 kills against Northwestern. Thelen had a near double-double with eight digs against Northwestern in the loss.
Villanova (1-0)
Friday, Sept. 15: W, 3-1 Temple (Recap)
Instead of a final tournament, the Wildcats hosted local-foe Temple at home. Villanova defeated Temple 3-1 (25-21,25-23,23-25,25-20). Remy Fairchild finished with 16 kills, while freshman Mallory Potts had 15 kills. Emma Decker finished with 52 assists, 15 digs.
Xavier (1-2)
Friday, Sept. 15: L, 3-1 at Colorado (Recap)
Saturday, Sept. 16: L, 3-0 at No. 22 Colorado State (Recap) | W, 3-1 vs. Albany (Recap)
Xavier senior Kristen Massa recorded her 1,000th career kill on Saturday night, leading Xavier to a four-set win (21-25, 25-15, 25-6, 25-13) over Albany. The Musketeers ended non-conference tournament action with a 1-2 mark at the Colorado State Tournament over the weekend. In Xavier’s win over Albany, Massa had 10 kills and 14 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. Alexis Newsome added a .429 hitting percentage and seven blocks. Massa led XU in kills in the 3-0 loss to No. 22 Colorado State with 11. She also added 20 in the four-set loss at Colorado, while also posting a team-high .302 hitting percentage.
Upcoming Midweek Schedule
Tuesday, Sept. 19
PROVIDENCE at Bryant at 7 p.m.
Stony Brook at ST. JOHN’S at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 20
DEPAUL at XAVIER at 4 p.m.
MARQUETTE at BUTLER at 7 p.m.
All times are Eastern.